Cooler Master Nepton 280L CPU Cooler Review

Cooler Master has been trying over the years to squeeze themselves into the all in one liquid cooling market; no spin-offs or re-brands as most AIO manufacturers offer. The in-house design makes these coolers stand out from the competitors offerings, however to be successful the AIO has to be a perfect combination of looks, ease of installation and of course most of all cooling performance at a low noise ratio. The Cooler Master AIO series have been hit and miss; especially the ease of installation was sometimes far fetched. With the Eisberg series Cooler Master has reached new performance heights for the AIO segment. Sadly the Eisberg lineup carried a hefty price tag due to the choice of high grade components. The Nepton series are CM's high end AIO coolers to fill up the gap between the Seidon series and the Eisberg models. Today we review the high end Nepton 280L version and compare it with the previously tested Corsair Hydro H110.

JetFlo Fans and Installation

The airflow is provided by two 140mm Cooler Master JetFlo fans, with an rotational speed rated up to 2000rpm, an airflow of 122.5CFM with a whopping static pressure of 3.5mm. The two included fans of the Corsair Hydro H110 only spin up till 1500rpm and are limited to 95CFM with a static pressure of 1.64mm. Both the 140 JetFlo fans receive a nicely sleeved 4 pin cable.

The seven rigid fan blades and the large Rifle Bearing design allow the 140 JetFlo to move some serious air at a low vibration rate. The 140 JetFlo fan blades have been designed for direct airflow instead of the more spread out airflow we are accustomed too from a more traditional fan design.

Installation has made big progress with the Nepton series: the Seidong and Eisberg series required quite a large amount of screws and loads of patience just to align the rubber inserts between the radiator and the fans. Things have been simplified with the Nepton 280L, making the installation just a matter of choosing the correct bracket side (if needed), inserting the pins plus the securing clips and finally screwing down the radiator with the required screws.

Installation on Intel S1150/1155/1156/1366 requires the usage of the Intel backplate; socket 2011 only requires the four standoffs to be screwed in.

Same backplate usage (AMD side) accounts for all the compatible AMD sockets (FM1/FM2/FM2+/AM2/AM3 and AM3+)